opossum

From Powhatan aposoum (“white animal”), from Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa (“white dog”); compare Ojibwe waabasim (“white dog”).

Sometimes falsely attributed to a Latin origin, as if from *oppossum; confer actual Latin possum (“I am able, I can”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒsəm/
• (US) enPR: ə-päsʹəm, IPA^(key): /əˈpɑsəm/[1][2][3] or in abbreviated form like possum, as /ˈpɑsəm/[1][2]
• Hyphenation: o‧pos‧sum

opossum (plural opossums)

1. Any American marsupial of the family Didelphidae. The common species of the United States is Didelphis virginiana.

• possum (US)

• water opossum (Chironectes minimus), yapock
• opossum mouse (Cercartetus nanus)
• opossum rat (Rattus marmosurus)
• opossum shrimp (order Mysida)
• shrew opossum (family Caenolestidae)

• → Irish: apasam

• opossum in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Didelphidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Didelphidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Borrowed from English opossum, from Powhatan aposoum (“white animal”), from Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa (“white dog”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌoːˈpɔ.sʏm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: opos‧sum

opossum m (plural opossums, diminutive opossumpje n)

1. opossum, marsupial of the family Didelphidae

   Synonym: buidelrat

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.pɔ.sɔm/

• Audio

  (file)

opossum m (plural opossums)

1. opossum

• “opossum” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).